Jewish Book Week

Stars from the stage as well as authors discussing the Middle East conflict are among the programme in this year's Jewish Book Week which is on from February 25 to March 5.

The central London event is one of the highlights of the Jewish cultural calendar and this year, Jewish Book Week offers a programme that features something for everyone.

Over 50 events will be taking place as part of the week at the Royal National Hotel, Bedford Way, London WC1 which shakes of the dust of previous years and is set to attract an audience as diverse as its authors.

We pick out some of the highlights.

She may be a killer on TV soap Eastenders, but in real life Tracy-Ann Oberman is just a nice Jewish girl and together with fellow thespian Henry Goodman, they will be reading from Children of the Ghetto (Sunday 26 February 5pm). Written by Israel Zangwill and originally published in 1892, it tells of life in the old Jewish East End.

As a people, Jews are dispersed all across the world and educationalist Jeremy Leigh takes a look at this diverse communities in his new book Jewish Travel during Wandering Jews (Sunday 26 February 11am).

Adam Lebor who has been a central European correspondent for national newspapers will be talking about his new book City of Oranges (Sunday 26 February 2pm). Looking at Jews and Arabs in the Israeli city of Jaffa, it explores the story of six families from 1920 to the present day.

Bar mitzah Disco (Sunday 26 February 7pm), which started off as a website is a book the highlights those great tasteless moments when having a bar mitzvah. Mainly based around photographs from American bar mitzvahs (and a few bat mitzvahs) from the 1960s to 1990s, it is a coffee table reminder of how the Jewish coming of age is depicted in events that celebrate it. The authors, Roger Bennett, Jamie Glassman, Nick Kroll will be talking about how the book came together

Former editor of the Jewish Chronicle William Frankel will be sharing some stories from his autobiography Tea With Einstein (Monday 27 February 5.15pm).

Just how edgy can Jewish writing get is the theme to Dangerous Writing? (Tuesday February 28 6.15pm). Authors Naomi Alderman and Shalom Auslander discuss their respective work where themes of sexual identity and images of God are featured.

David Nasser Khalili has a passion for Islamic art and is an avid collector and commentat. His latest book The Timeline History of Islamic Art and Architecture explores this and is discussed in Passions: Islamic Art (Wednesday March 1 7.30pm)

Writer and broadcaster Sandi Toksvig will be talking about her children's book Hilter's Canary (Sunday 5 March 5pm) about the Danish population saving the Jewish population of Denmark from the Nazis.

Adult events cost £8 for each one weekdays and £15 on weekend. £1 discount when booking more than 4 events or £100 for admission to all events. Children's programmes cost £4 for each child.